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Sunday, November 11, 2007

An Evening at the Gage...

Had another art-filled evening out this weekend. Most of our critique group headed to the U district in Seattle for dinner (you can either leave home a bit early and eat in Seattle, or spend dinner-time inching along on the freeway during rush hour. Not a hard decision. You can catch the report on dinner on our POBL blog-). After a yummy, noisy, talk-filled hour we headed over to the Gage Academy of Art (where a number of us continue to take classes) for an art showing and a lecture.

Michelle, one of our most avid class-attenders as well as a fabulous artist and instructor, had a piece hanging in the still-life corridor. We browsed the paintings - ignoring the wine, punch, cheese and snacks since we were terribly full from dinner...

We then settled in to listen to a lecture on horse anatomy - several of our number are avid riders and painters of horses. I recently got an assignment that entails accurate horse anatomy, and I realized that I have never really delved into it as an adult... I'm still kind of depending on my "How to Draw Horses" books from my childhood - so this was very opportune -

We had a couple of guest lecturers, but the real star of the evening was 'Norman', the fully articulated, actual horse skeleton that the Gage has recently acquired. It really was amazing to see in its full-scale, 3-D glory.

Gudrun, another instructor and horse artist from our group, got rather 'hands on'(well, lips, really) with the skeleton. Much as she does with her own horses at home.

It was great *really* getting into my head how horse anatomy mirrors human anatomy - those backwards-bending, huge hocks are really the calcaneus (heel) bones! and the rest of the lower leg corresponds with feet bones. Ha! All of the sudden all of the articulations finally! made sense.

I saw your comment in my in-box and came straight here!Great photos! I never had a horse, so 'hopped aboard' whenever I had the chance as a kid;usually bare-back on a pony. But I had shelves of horse-y paraphenalia, including a veterinary book.Whenever I see a properly- drawn horse, I think of Stubbs.

Very good solution, having a decent dinner first and then nourish the spirit. ;-)The lecture you visited reminded me that Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester. Leonardo da Vinci has produced illustrated notebooks about the anatomy and physiology of the horse. I wonder if Gates has made these notebooks available to be shown somewhere in Seattle.

Oh boy, another skeleton! I needed one of these in art school. What's really needed in any art school is a class devoted to drawing only animals. One of my favorite animal drawing books is Ken Hultgren's "The Art of Animal Drawing."

Hi Tara:My comment is out of context but I read your comment on Corey's blog and came to see you. I LOVE "Knot of Toads" and the ash girl. Although your style is totally your own I felt like I do when I look at anything Tasha Tudor illustrates. She is my favorite until I see your toads and chipmunks!!! You are wonderful!!!

I have never seen a horse right to it's bare bones..kind of creepy if one is not studying it for a reason such as sketching. I am sure you got a lot from this evening and a thrill to be around your peers...such a creative bunch I am sure.hugs NG

About Me

From my earliest memories I've been captivated by the illustrations in
fairy tales and childrens books and couldn't think of anything else I'd
rather do when I was grown up than create my own.
When I'm not painting in the studio, I can probably be found working in
my gardens to make sure that there are plenty of havens for visiting
fairies.